Record number of orders mark next phase of EUV adoption

ASML CFO Roger Dassen called it a “momentous quarter” for EUV lithography: the first devices with EUV-made chips have been sold. In August, Samsung launched the Galaxy Note10 smartphone line, powered by 7nm SoCs fabbed in-house. And early October, TSMC confirmed shipments of N7+ chips had commenced. The recently launched Huawei Mate 30 smartphone, for example, has its processor manufactured at the Taiwanese foundry.

And this is just the beginning, as far as deploying EUV is concerned. On average, Samsung and TSMC incorporate 10 EUV layers in their 7nm chips. The 5nm node, which is right around the corner, will double that. Even before that, both chipmakers will start a 6nm half-node, in which EUV use is presumably also stepped up compared to 7nm. Additionally, production capacity will ramp up in anticipation of high demand for 5G and AI chips. And, to top it all off, DRAM manufacturers are starting to adopt EUV for their next-generation memory chips.